


haha :)

by fruectose



Series: from the corners of my brain [7]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:34:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25977535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fruectose/pseuds/fruectose
Summary: yeah... the title is a joke but idk what else to call it and it is kinda relevant so. it's a drabble it'll take u three seconds to read so why don't u!
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Series: from the corners of my brain [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1826065
Comments: 1
Kudos: 55





	haha :)

Annabeth loved Percy Jackson, and in that, all the million ways he laughed.

She loved when he laughed at someone’s joke- how he always leaned forward and how his mouth hung open just a little bit. She knew him like the back of her hand- knew that he hid his face when the joke was dirty, but his shoulders always shook with laughter. She particularly loved that when Percy found something really, _really_ funny, he tilted his head back, and ran his palm over his eyes and then down his face to try to calm himself down. She loved that it was a rare laugh- and she loved the butterflies she got when she was the one to coax that laugh out of him.

There was something about Percy’s laugh that made it impossible not to smile around him. Annabeth used to think it was just her, used to think it was because she was so wholly in love with him- but she’d quickly learn that simply wasn’t true. He had a charm about him, something she couldn’t put her finger on. He was just a good person, she decided. And when Reyna or Chiron or even her own stepbrothers laughed with him, she liked to believe that they saw that in him, too.

It was a stupid thing to say, she knew, but her boyfriend could make the worst days worth it with a bad joke and a good, hearty laugh. They’d spent so many evenings, lying on the couches, tangled up under the sheets, sitting on Sally’s countertop- laughing uncontrollably until they were crying at something as ridiculous as it was mundane, and Annabeth could swear those are the happiest moments of her life. That was a different laugh, too- one with pink cheeks and tears in his eyes and no sounds except clapping and wheezing. The kind where he’d _beg_ her to shut up because he couldn’t breathe or his stomach ached. That was a best friend laugh, reserved for Grover and Tyson and Annabeth alone.

She’d heard every variation of Percy Jackson’s laugh. Like how he chuckled affectionately at her when she was being deliberately (if not also unnecessarily) difficult, or how he’s only ever giggled twice in his entire life- once (apparently) when his first-grade teacher told him he’d done a good job, and once when his baby sister called him Pussy. There’s a guffaw, one that comes from the depths of his soul, a roaring laugh when the joke is outrageous and a sarcastic, nasal one when someone’s offended him. Then there was the laughs was the quiet snicker, the half-hearted exhale, the one accompanied with a _look_ in Annabeth’s direction when they were in public because Percy needed an excuse to get out of a conversation.

But Annabeth’s favorite was easily the one that wasn’t a laugh at all. It was the twinkling eyes and the wide, foolish grin when he was thinking about some inside joke, when one word is enough to send them both into fits of laughter, enough to halt any productivity for the entire day. That was the laugh that was _hers_ , and hers alone. It made her feel special- different, to all his other friends, because she had one laugh that nobody else did.

  
In any social circle, under any circumstance, within any room in the world- Percy was Annabeth’s favorite. He always had been. It was nice, she thought, to know that it worked both ways.

She looked at him now, sitting in the bar and laughing at something Nico had said, one arm around Rachel’s shoulders and the other holding a beer. He was chuckling, quiet and unbothered by what was outside their booth, and she felt a weight lift off of her.

The universe hadn’t been particularly kind to any of them, perhaps most of all Percy. He’d been tangled in too many prophecies, the Fates had pulled his string one too many times, and Annabeth realized in that moment what she liked the best about Percy’s laugh- that it _existed_ at all, despite the grief and pain and loss he’d faced- was in itself a miracle. Here, he was no hero, no savior of the world, not a boy with the future of the world resting on his shoulders. Here, he was just a man, laughing, _happy_ , with his friends.

Annabeth loved Percy Jackson, and in that, all the million ways he remained human.


End file.
